party,
rather than parties, may be thus summed up:--The Radicals are
confident and sanguine; the Whigs uneasy; the Tories desponding;
moderate men, who belong to no party, but support Government,
serious, and not without alarm. There is, in fact, enough to
justify alarm, for the Government has evidently no power over the
House of Commons, and though it is probable that they will
scramble through the session without sustaining any serious
defeat, or being reduced to the necessity of any great sacrifice
or compromise, they are conscious of their own want of authority
and of that sort of command without which no Government has been
hitherto deemed secure. The evil of this is that we are now
reduced to the alternative of Lord Grey's Government or none at
all; and should he be defeated on any great measure, he must
either abandon the country to its fate, or consent to carry on
the Government upon the condition of a virtual transfer of the
executive power to the House of Commons. If this comes to pass
the game is up, for this House, like animals who have once tasted
blood, if it ever exercises such a power as this, and finds a
Minister consenting to hold office on such terms, will never rest
till it has acquired all the authority of the Long Parliament and
reduced that of the Crown to a mere cypher. It is curious,
by-the-bye, that the example of the Long Parliament in a trivial
matter has just been adopted, in the sittings of the House at
twelve o'clock for the hearing of petitions.

February 27th, 1833 {p.362}

Laid up ever since that dinner at Dwarris's with the gout. Frederick
Fitzclarence has been compelled to resign the situation at the Tower
which the King gave him; they found it very probable that the House
of Commons would refuse to vote the pay of it--a trifle in itself,
but indicative of the spirit of the times and the total want of
consideration for the King. O'Connell made a speech of such violence
at the Trades Union the other day--calling the House of Commons six
hundred scoundrels--that there was a great deal of talk about taking
it up in Parliament and proposing his expulsion, which, however,
they have not had the folly to do. The Irish Bill was to come on
last night. The sense of insecurity and uneasiness evidently
increases; the Government assumes a high tone, but is not at all
certain of its ability to pass the Coercive Bills unaltered, and
yesterday there appeared an article in the 'Times' in a styl